


Believing the Lie

by desperationandgin



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 06:25:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James cons everyone's way into DHARMA, but they have to believe the story to make it convincing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Believing the Lie

“I must have lost it when the boat wrecked,” Juliet says absently when Maddie asks where her wedding ring is. She’s standing in the middle of her living room (no, really,  _her_  living room in thirty or so years; there’s the crack in the wall by the bedroom door) looking around awkwardly as the Dharma woman piles clothes into a bag. She’s telling her what she does, she’s a teacher or an aide to a teacher, but Juliet’s hardly paying attention.  
  
“So, this isn’t much, but it’s what I can give. Things to sleep in, a pair of jeans and some tops. I’ll get with a few of the other girls to find dresses and skirts and shoes.”  
  
Juliet’s still trying to wrap her mind around this giant lie that she’s supposed to be living, one that she didn’t even know she was a part of until Horace approached her and said her husband was being shown to their temporary housing and did she want to grab something to wear? She thanks Tom Friendly in that moment for teaching her the meaning of ‘poker face’ back when she thought learning Latin and how to shoot weapons was something she’d be able to laugh about with Rachel in five or six months.  
  
So the words ‘dresses and skirts’ don’t get rebutted, even though she hates long frilly things.  
  
“Why didn’t you change your last name to ‘LaFleur’?”  
  
Why is she asking so many questions? Juliet can feel a headache starting to pound behind her right eyebrow. “We’re both researchers and want to stand apart in our work,” she explains, and is that the right lie? Researchers? Shit, she doesn’t know; she never talked to James about it.  
  
“What’s that like, working with a bunch of men?”  
  
God, this is the seventies in it? She’s supposed to be a housewife or a full time mom or something else that’s ridiculous, but she forces a smile. “It can be trying at the best of times,” and then the doorway is full and there’s James and all that Juliet can silently think is  _Get me out of here so I can kill you without witnesses_.  
  
“It’s been a long and trying night, why don’t we let James and Juliet get to their beds?” Oh, it’s Horace too, and suddenly she’s regretting this agreement to two weeks, even if there isn’t anywhere else to go. Two weeks of pretending to be James’ wife. Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty six hours. She forces a smile and takes the bag of clothes from Maddie, following Horace and James out, through the courtyard and to Ethan’s house. Not Ethan’s house, her new house. With James. A one bedroom house.  
  
“Your colleagues will be staying in a house across the compound, it’s the only place we had multiple rooms. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the privacy here.”  
  
Yeah, appreciate isn’t the word she’d pick, but she smiles again, nodding as Horace keeps going about non-perishables in the pantry, toiletries already stocked and how in the morning the cafeteria will be open for breakfast. To earn their keep they can do menial tasks and they’ll re-evaluate the situation in two weeks after the jungle has been searched for their missing people. James is doing all of the talking, and she’s suddenly very aware that this is what his entire past is made up of, telling lies, and he’s extraordinarily good at it, though she’s not sure what she was expecting. He’s so convincing that maybe she could buy into this con. Especially when he keeps dropping sentences that start with ‘Me and my wife’ or addressing her by sweetheart of all the damn pet names in the world.  
  
“Oh, and Jim,” Horace says before leaving. “I’m going to have to confiscate your rifles. We have a strict lockup procedure.”  
  
There’s a swell of panic that bubbles up in her chest, because there are Hostiles out there, and the smoke, and she locks eyes with James for a split second. Long enough to read that it’s okay. “Sure,” he says, grabbing both guns and handing them over. “Guess we ain’t gotta worry about what’s out in that jungle anymore.” His smile is so easy that she smiles too, and then Horace is gone and she’s left staring at the door. It’s quiet. Too quiet and James is too close. When she turns around her chest is against his and she takes one giant step back.  
  
“ _Married?_  You…we…that’s the lie you came up with? I couldn’t just be an assistant on your ship, we have to be married?” She realizes she sputtered in the middle of her disbelief and notes with amusement that he’s backed up and raised his hands in front of his chest defensively.  
  
“Look, sweetheart, it was spur of the moment, alright? He was askin’ questions and I had to be smooth. If I hesitated he’d know I was lyin’.”  
  
“Stop calling me sweetheart. Did you think about questions he might think to ask later? Like…why our last names aren’t the same, or why we don’t have wedding rings, or…why we have a Korean with us who only knows four full sentences of English?”  
  
James is just staring at her like she’s crazy until he moves to the fridge and opens it, whistling low under his breath and pulling out a DHARMA beer. “Hot damn, just what I’ve been lookin’ forward to.” He cracks it open and takes a long pull before finally addressing her questions. “Look.  _Juliet_. For all he knows, we were goin’ to the damn Orient and recruited Jin to help us translate.  
  
“Jin’s going to translate?”  
  
“You gotta learn how to just go with things, alright? I got this under control.”  
  
Juliet grabs the can of beer out of his hand, swallows over half of it and shoves it back at him. “You’re sleeping on the couch,” she informs him, then takes her bag of clothes and stalks to the bedroom. She doesn’t even know if he has clothes or if there’s a blanket out there or what. She’s still trying to convince herself that she can live this lie.  _Alright. Two weeks._  
  
***  
  
The time goes by ridiculously fast.  
  
She spends half the day searching the jungle in grids with Miles, James, and Jin, and the rest in the motor pool earning a few bucks to buy food. The guys do maintenance work and by the time she’s ready to go she’s managed to collect enough donated clothes for herself that she needs to pack a small duffle bag. Juliet’s doing exactly that when James leans on the door frame, casually watching her. “Yes?” she asks, finally looking up at him.  
  
“Horace asked me and the boys to work in security. Replace some people that are movin’ on.”  
  
“Well, I guess it’s too bad we’re going to Tahiti in the morning.”  
  
He’s quiet for so long that she looks up at him, pausing in folding a shirt, leaving it hanging there in front of her. “Maybe I ain’t goin’.”  
  
“Well won’t that look strange, when your wife gets on the sub and you stay behind.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement of fact because  _she’s going._  
  
“I know we had this talk, but it’s like you didn’t even hear me. What do you think you’re goin’ to? You got what, ten dollars, and you’re gonna try and make a livin’?”  
  
Juliet lets out a huff of air in frustration, sitting on the edge of the bed with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. “I can’t…James, you don’t know what this is like.”  
  
“What what’s like?”  
  
“To have this ability to be able to go, finally, and still being told that I can’t. All that I want to do is go home.” Her voice cracks before she can stop it. “I want to go home, James.”  
  
He’s uncomfortable, she can tell without looking at him, she can feel it in the tension that suddenly dominates the space between them, but he still walks forward and sinks onto the bed, making it dip low. “Look,” he says, voice quiet, just between them like there are other people listening. “You wanna go? I can’t stop you. I’ll make somethin’ else up so it don’t look so crazy that you’re leavin’ me behind. And I’ll make Jin and Miles give me the money they got and you can have all of it. Ain’t much, but prices are different in the seventies right? And hell, maybe you already got a plan, but you can’t just go out there with nothin’ but the clothes people gave you.”  
  
Juliet just stares at him, like she can’t believe a word he’s saying, and she wants to ask him why he cares so much about what she does anyway, but the words never make it out of her mouth. She wants to go home, but she doesn’t have a home, so why is she fighting for something that doesn’t even exist? It doesn’t make sense, and he’s too close again so she gets up and goes to the window, staring out into the backyard which is really just jungle. “I guess this is it. This island, these houses, that’s it for me.”  
  
“Since when do you feel sorry for yourself, Juliet?”  
  
She’d argue that he doesn’t even know her, but it’s a valid question.  
  
When she turns around again, he’s standing up and they lock eyes, hers searching his, wondering how honest she can be with him. But she figures if he can open up to her about seeing Kate and Claire in the jungle during the flashes, and if she already has the privilege of knowing intimate information about him, she can give him something.  
  
“Ben was keeping me prisoner here. I came voluntarily, but he wouldn’t let me leave. All this island has ever done is trap me. Even now, I have a way to get out and nowhere to go.”  
  
When she breaks eye contact James steps forward, then with one arm pulls her close. He smells like DHARMA soap and fabric softener and Juliet closes her eyes, pressing her face against his shoulder.  
  
“Stay here with me. I can’t promise that you won’t still feel like you’re trapped, but I’ll keep workin’. We all will, and eventually we’ll have enough money to grab that sub to Tahiti.” He squeezes her a little and she wants to move away but it feels nice, this way that he’s holding onto her. “Long as we still got each other’s backs, I figure we’ll be okay.”  
  
It’s crazy, and all that she can think is that she’s going to have to pretend to be married to him forever, but finally she nods and steps back to push a hand through her hair. “I’ll stay.” The look on his face is like she just told him the best news he’s ever heard, and she wonders what it matters anyway. Then he’s hugging her again and she closes her eyes. It’s still crazy and she’s still stuck, but it’ll work.  
  
***  
  
It’s their anniversary and she’s been nodding at the ‘congratulations, you two’ comments all day. It’s been eight months of rotating who gets the couch and who gets the bed. Eight months of ‘sweethearts’ and ‘yes dears’ and for some reason Horace asked when exactly their anniversary was and James said ‘next week as a matter of fact’ and Juliet could have killed him on the spot. Especially because hippies like any excuse to throw a party, so now she’s awkwardly making up a story about her first date with James, trying to remember what was popular when they would have been dating in the sixties. Most of what she tells them is straight from the movie  _Grease_ , and she almost chokes on her beer when James starts talking about being the star of the football team. She knows they’re lying but that’s indulgent even for him.  
  
There’s a cake that says ‘Happy Seven Year Anniversary!’ and as they blow out the candles together there’s a chant of ‘kiss, kiss!’ and they’ve pecked each other on the lips enough times in front of Horace or Amy that she figures what the hell, this is just like those other times. But James has other plans, and his hands cup her face as he pulls her into a kiss that has her bringing an arm around his waist out of instinct, her lips parting when his tongue grazes her bottom lip, and she can practically hear Miles and Jin’s jaws drop just before everyone bursts into applause. When they pull apart her cheeks are flushed and she’s still holding onto him. A camera flash pulls her out of her reverie and they separate quickly; he reaches for a plate and she reaches for the knife in perfect unison.  
  
All that she can think as she slices through the words on the cake is that she didn’t know she felt anything for a man she tasered almost nine months ago in the jungle. She can feel his gaze on her, it feels dangerous and wonderful, and when she catches his eyes again they’re so green it makes her stomach flip. She wonders if hers are that darkly blue.  
  
When they get home they don’t even turn on lights, just pull off clothes and he presses her against the wall before pushing into her while her legs lock around his hips, neck falling to the side so that his mouth can graze across her skin. And then he’s moving, walking them to the bedroom and sitting on the bed while she straddles his lap, her body pressing against his while he memorizes the curve of her hips with his hands. It’s over too fast but it’s the best sex she can ever remember having, and he somehow manages to get them onto the bed on top of the covers. Sweat cools on her skin and when she looks at him again he’s looking right back. Their lips meet, exploring, tasting, and Juliet reaches out to push his hair out of his face.  
  
It worked. This lie they’re living. Even she believes it now.


End file.
